Losing DeAndre Hopkins to Titans a missed opportunity for Patriots

FOXBORO -- DeAndre Hopkins will not be coming to New England to help the Patriots offense. Instead, the veteran receiver will be catching passes for the Tennessee Titans.

It's a missed opportunity for the Patriots, and one that simply came down to money. Hopkins is reportedly set to sign a two-year, $26 million deal with Tennessee later this week, with another $6 million in potential incentives, according to several reports.

Hopkins was looking for the best deal financially throughout his free agency tour, which consisted of meetings with just the Patriots and the Titans. In the end, the Titans offered Hopkins the best contract, and he'll now be wearing a Tennessee uniform for the next two seasons instead of a New England one.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Patriots' offer didn't even come close to what the Titans were offering Hopkins. 

The Patriots had nearly $10 million more in available cap space than the Titans, but seemingly weren't willing to make a large investment on the 31-year-old Hopkins. Which is unfortunate, because the five-time Pro Bowler would have helped an offense that is surrounded by a slew of question marks heading into the 2023 season.

Hopkins would have given Mac Jones a true No. 1 receiver, easily the most accomplished weapon the quarterback would have had in his brief NFL career. Hopkins is the kind of guy that opposing defenses need to worry about on every play, something the New England offense has lacked for the last several years.

Adding Hopkins to Jones' arsenal would have given the Patriots an opportunity to truly assess their quarterback in his third NFL season. It would have been easier to figure out if Jones is their quarterback of the future with a guy like Hopkins in the mix. It will be a lot more difficult to make a fair assessment now.

Now the Patriots are banking on the likes of JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Kendrick Bourne, and Tyquan Thornton to lead the charge in the receiving corps. They'll have to hope that new offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien can unlock the potential of newcomer Mike Gesicki, who is joining Hunter Henry at tight end. The Pats are banking on the stability that O'Brien will bring to the offense, after last year's failed OC experiment, will right all that was wrong in 2022.

Hopkins would have been a big price to pay for New England, and the Patriots do have bigger needs on the offense. Both tackle positions are up in the air, and the Pats are really putting a lot of pressure on Rhamondre Stevenson to carry the load -- seemingly the entire load -- out of the backfield. So perhaps Bill Belichick will spend that Hopkins money elsewhere on the offensive side.

But in letting Hopkins head to the Titans, the Patriots appear very confident in their wide receiver group heading into the 2023 season. We'll see if that confidence pays off in the end, or if they'll regret letting a solid veteran pass-catcher go elsewhere.